Grieving Losses
Grieving Losses
"What is the situation here?" He gloomily asked as he scanned the tents in the clearing, "Are we close?"
Ah Jin knit her brows, how was she supposed to know whether they were close or not when she had no idea where they were going? She was also curious about some other things but she seriously gave her report, "I don't know...It's been stagnant the last few weeks. The Empress dowager has been having bouts of fits, sometimes she no longer wishes to continue the journey but the monk and her eunuch always manage to convince her to continue. But there are times when this mood persists for days, at one time, we stayed in a city for one month while she cooled her head. There are also times when she sleeps for days, other times not at all. She seems quite troubled...and confused..."
Doctor Lou nodded and stroked his long beard, "Understandable, travelling like this is no fun..."
Ah Jin's lips twitched, that was definitely not it, but she did not argue and continued, "It has been difficult to travel with her hence the significant delay in arrival. As you ordered, I have not used my powers and have kept my distance from the group, taking special care with the Monk... sometimes it feels like he can sense my presence but nothing has come from it, so I can't be sure."
Doctor Lou continued stroking his beard as he squinted at the tent which he perceived to be the Empress dowager's. Leaving her on her own for this long was not a good idea, especially when she was already so agitated. Unfortunately, he had no choice at the time, saving Xiao Ying was his priority. Even though he was haphazard in his ways, he was still a responsible father.
He would have liked to go check on the Empress dowager but that Monk Du was a problem. He could not alert the enemy. Moreover, he also did not have the strength right now to help her even if she was in a bad way. Therefore, there was no point in going, it will only trouble him.
Doctor Lou let out a heavy sigh. Why was everything in his life so irritating recently?
"Shifu... How is Xiao Ying?" Ah Jin tentatively asked after a long while of silence.
"She'll live." Doctor Lou dismissively said with a pout, "That stubborn brat that would sell her father for -"
"She tried to sell you?!" Ah Jin asked with wide eyes.
"No... but she just might for that Yong brat..." Doctor Lou mumbled, settling down and pulling on his beard. Then he finally turned to Ah Jin and smiled, "You've worked really hard on this project, Shifu is most pleased with your work! You are smart, diligent, wise, a great listener, you do need to loosen up a bit and have fun but we can work on that later~ All in all, you are the best student a Shifu could have! Much better than those ungrateful brats who only know how to complain and glare at me for helping..." He went back to pouting.
"Did something happen back at the Long capital?" Ah Jin tentatively asked again.
Doctor Lou let out another heavy sigh, "Shan Shan's gone... We lost our opportunity!" He wailed, "Shifu just wanted to give you some junior disciples, some useful connections or whatnot, but that Shan Shan and Xing Xing are really too stubborn!"
"The senior disciple is already more than enough of a connection... We don't need them as junior disciples..." Ah Jin said with a little pout. She did not understand the old man's obsession with those two. The only thing that made sense was that it was some sort of game with his sister, that or he just enjoyed messing with them and getting rejected, "Besides, we have Xiao Ying-"
"She doesn't count!" Doctor Lou swiftly responded and then sighed again. He turned to Ah Jin and smiled, "Forget it, it doesn't matter. Think of what you want for your reward and let Shifu know, okay? Anything you want~" He stressed with a hard pat on her back.
Ah Jin smiled, her mood lighting up with his, "It's no trouble at all. It was even fun at some points. I can stay or - or, um, maybe I can go monitor things with the royal-"
"No, it's fine. Xing Xing and Xiao Kai should be able to handle whatever comes their way and if they can't, well, it doesn't really matter anymore. Those brats could stand to learn some hard lessons..." Doctor Lou said with a yawn, leaning back on the tree trunk, settling in for a nap.
"Oh... is there really nothing?" Ah Jin deflatedly asked.
"En. Go have fun for yourself. Get drunk, set a city on fire, whatever you want. Shifu will clean up after~" Doctor Lou sleepily said, waving her away. He has really expended too much energy recently. On top of that, he has not been able to sleep for the last week because he had to watch Feng Lifen and Bai Huan so they did not run away from him. Then he had to clean up Lei Xing and the Emperor's mess, he was dead tired.
Ah Jin pouted, unhappy with being dismissed. She sighed and was about to leave but then froze when she saw Monk Du, looking in their direction with such piercing focus. She stayed absolutely still, almost scared to move. Just as she began contemplating whether to wake her Master, Monk Du turned and continued on his way about camp.
Ah Jin let out a sigh of relief.
Honestly, this was one task she did not enjoy at all, it was nerve-racking. It was not only the Monk that was rattling her nerves, the Empress dowager was also a scary entity. Sometimes the women also seemed to be staring right at her as well. Thinking of that reminded her of this one time when the Empress dowager suddenly asked her men to burn down the tree Ah Jin just happened to have been hanging on because it "irritated" her. She told herself it was a coincidence but still, it was nerve-racking.
Ah Jin frowned, she could not leave things like this. What if the crazy woman came out and asked them to burn this tree? Her Master slept like the dead, he would not wake up until it was too late. It was best to stick around, at least until he woke up...just to be safe.
With that concluded, Ah Jin sat back down and settled in for watch duty.
***
"I apologize, but the Emperor will not be attending today." The eunuch announced to the ministers in court for the third day in a row.
"Again? It can't continue like this... The Zou princess being imprisoned here like this is not the answer -"
"What do you mean? She dared to attack our Empress! If it were anyone else, they would be dead already."
"Speaking of the Empress, what is the situation like?"
"Defense minister Lei, you should know best..."
The ministers turned to Defense minister Lei for answers, "I'm sure the Empress is doing fine..." He curtly informed. The truth was that he honestly did not know, but there was no point in feeding the rumor mill. The morning after Prince Yi's death and Princess Nalan's subsequent attack, the Emperor had sent an eunuch to his manor to reassure them that Lei Xing was alright.
There was no court session scheduled for that day but in light of the seriousness of the matters on ground, he along with a bunch of the other high ministers entered the palace to discuss with the Emperor. Only for an eunuch to turn them away saying that the Emperor will not be seeing anyone that day.
Left with no choice, they left. They assembled for the court session the next day all anxious to discuss the situation, only to once again be informed by the same eunuch that the Emperor will not be attending court. Later in the day, it was uncovered that the Empress was ill.
Of course, Defense minister Lei sent someone to inquire from the Emperor, but all he received was that she was alright. This made him even more confused. Was it that Lei Xing was really ill and he was trying to downplay it so her family did not worry, OR was this was a ruse they were playing out so the Emperor had a justified excuse to cut Zou.
It was hard to understand what the Emperor was thinking right now. Prince Yi was dead, Princess Nalan was imprisoned, along with Molin and all the Zou representatives, the Zou prime minister would be here in the next few days and the Emperor was ignoring everyone. This definitely did not bode well for those involved in this mess right now.
One member of the above group was Prime minister Zhao who has been uncharacteristically quiet the last few days. Usually, he would be at the front leading the charge to the Emperor, but his voice had barely been heard lately.
"Does this mean we're going to war then?"
"Hmph, we should have already gotten rid of them ages ago. Isn't that right, Prime minister Zhao?" One of the Prime minister Zhao's followers chimed in to get his attention.
"Huh?" Prime minister Zhao absentmindedly responded, looking over his shoulder with a frown, "What did you say?"
"How can a man whose house on fire have the time to think about somebody else's house?... How is your son doing?" One of the ministers asked with "concern".
"Our" Another minister helpfully informed.
Prime minister Zhao turned to the minister, but before he could respond, one of his followers chimed up, "Thanks to our Prime minister's good fortune and the Emperor's goodwill, our Young is naturally recovering well -"
Prime minister Zhao sent his follower a glance that said shut up and then raised his head high, "If you all have nothing else to do today other than to stand here to bicker, go home. The palace is not a place for children" He condescendingly said, flapped his sleeves and walked off, silently seething while his followers flocked behind him.
{...What is the Emperor thinking? What is he plotting with this silence?... This stupid son, won't it have been better if he just died quietly? Why must he live and complicate things?!...}
Prime minister Zhao understood how this Emperor operates, this silence definitely meant he was scheming something. This whole ruse of the Empress being sick was just an excuse to further escalate matters. Now because of this idiotic son of his, he was caught in the middle crosshairs of this unfortunate series of events.
It would have been one thing if his son had died, who would dare point a finger at a grieving father? With his son alive, not only was he considered the father of a potential suspect, but he was now also a suspected accomplice, if not the mastermind.
Whether or not his son did is the culprit is not the issue - Zhao Chang was too stupid to do something like that. Ah, no, perhaps he was just about the right amount of stupid. But he liked that Prince Yi better than his own father, so he definitely could not have. Either way, that was not important.
Prime minister Zhao scoffed, the Emperor must think he was an idiot to leave his tail hanging outside the door like this. When a limb becomes infected, one must be prepared to cut it off to save himself. Since this son of his has now established himself as a liability, he was left with no choice but to cut him off.
Prime minister Zhao had already made up his mind and with that resolve, he went towards the Imperial pharmacy.
{...To fall at the hands of this foolish brat will be too humiliating...I will never let that happen!...}